Semifinal 2: Feni Industries - Fersped Rabotnicki (preview)
All Macedonian Semifinal 2
The all-Macedonian second semifinal of the Eurohold Balkan League on Tuesday came about because according to the BIBL Regulations if two clubs from the same country qualify for the Final Four, then these two clubs will meet in the semifinal. That means the two leading teams in the FYROM right now - Feni Industries and Fersped Rabotnicki - will have another chance to see who`s better, this time in the BIBL.
Judging by what they have done so far this season, or even by their recent form, it`s very hard to separate those and tell who is the favourite.
They have an equal number of victories (18) and losses (2) in their domestic league, if we count both its 1st and 2nd (Superleague) phases. Feni Industries and Fersped Rabotnicki also had an amazingly similar fate in the Macedonian Cup competition - they made it to the semifinal and were odds-on to face each other in the final, but were sensationally beaten by the next two best teams in the FYROM - AMMAK SP and Swisslion Pelister respectively. But then they both bounced back with away victories in the Macedonian Superleague mid-week and then home victories over the weekend. With the latter they took revenge over the same teams that had ousted them in the cup semis. That double flop in the domestic cup will also mean that Feni and Fersped will surely be even more determined to do well in the much more prestigious BIBL Final Four where they have the opportunity to take it out on each other.
In the BIBL they reached the Final Four in a very similar manner. The only difference was in their regular season performaces, where Fersped Rabotnicki had a slightly better win-loss record (5-3) and had a late run of good form, while Feni Industries (4-4) reached their best form in the early stages.
In Group B Fersped Rabotnicki ended the regular season with three games at home in just one week. They needed three victories to win the group, but unfortunately they lost one of the games - against Rilski Sportist, who consequently snatched the top position from Fersped`s grasp. Wins in the other two (versus Levski and Mega Hypo Leasing) were enough for second place and home court advantage for the second leg of the quarterfinals. Feni Industries held on to second place in Group A as well, although they lost their last three games of the regular season, all three on the road (at CSU Cuadripol, Swisslion Takovo and Euroins Cherno More).
The second leg home court advantage proved crucial for both Feni and Fersped, as both managed to overcome the same 16-point deficit from their away games in Bulgaria, by winning by a slightly bigger margin a week later at home. Even the final scores in those thrilling second leg epics and the way they achieved them were very similar for the two Macedonian teams versus their Bulgarian opponents: Feni Industries defeated Levski by 81-62, while Fersped Rabotnicki beat Euroins Cherno More by 81-61, both with a decisive late surge in the 4th quarter.
Here are once again the core players and main arguments of both teams in their duel:
Donald Cole is the undisputed on-court leader of Feni Industries as he averages 21.3 points per contest in the 10 games he has played in the BIBL so far. He managed to reach double digits in scoring in all but one of the games (versus Lions at home). The 28-year old American forward-center is also the leading rebounder of the team with 5.3 boards per game.
Another player to watch from the Macedonian champions’ roster is Serbian guard-forward Milan Prekovic. He brings a lot of experience on the court and knows how to shoot the ball very well from long distance. Prekovic has 18 three-pointers in his 10 games (an average of 1.8) and with 12.1 points has been the second offensive threat by Feni Industries in the Eurohold Balkan League season 2008/09.
Power forward Gjorgi Cekovski and guard Darko Sokolov left the team at the end of last year but American Taliek Brown has been brought back in to replace Sokolov as the team’s starting point guard and he has averaged 10.2 points and 2.5 assists per game. He now forms a very attractive backcourt duo with Goran Samardziev, who has 9.7 points per contest. Center Zlatko Gocevski contributes an average of 10.1.
Four Macedonian National team players are the best scorers of Fersped Rabotnicki in the Eurohold Balkan League so far. They all average in double digits with Dime Tasovski leading them with 14.8 points per game. The other guard Ognen Stojanovski has 13.4, big guy Toni Simic - 12.9 - and Bojan Trajkovski - 10.4.
Fersped also recently added a couple of new players – Danilo Mitrovic and Turk Bora Pacun. Mitrovic has played 4 games, averaging 5.2 points, while Pacun’s has netted 2.7 point per game in 3 contests.
Macedonians Fersped Rabotnicki scored the most 3-pointers in both groups of the Eurohold Balkan League. In those 8 games they succeeded 73 times from behind the arc out of 196 attempted shots - 37.2 %. They added another 16 triples in their 2 quarterfinal games versus Cherno More, although their percentage dropped a bit (30.8 % - 16/52). But generally, once they get going from long distance it’s very hard to stop them.
The players of coach Dokuzovski also lead the Balkan League in blocked shots per game – 3.2, with Toni Simic having 9 blocks to his name overall (1.55 per game).
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| Delasport Balkan League 2023/2024 Regular Season | |||
| 1 | .jpg){kind=logo} KB Sigal Prishtina |
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